Edward Worth (bishop)
Edward Worth (c. 1620–2 August 1669) was a Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe, mainly remembered now as the founder of the Blue Coat School for the poor boys of Cork.
He was born in Newmarket, County Cork, son of James Worth, a clergyman; his grandfather Jasper Worth came to Ireland from Prestbury, Cheshire, where the family had lived for several centuries. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) by the University of Dublin. He was appointed Dean of Cork in 1645. During the political and religious conflicts of the 1640s and 1650s, Worth was described as "an adroit political player", who made his peace with the new regime, and enjoyed the personal regard of Henry Cromwell, but emerged at the Restoration of Charles II with his reputation for loyalty to the English Crown more or less intact. He was raised to the episcopacy as Bishop of Killaloe in 1660 by Letters Patent of King Charles II. He was consecrated in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin on 27 January 1661. Killaloe was a small diocese, and Worth as a bishop had nothing like the influence he had enjoyed in the late 1650s, when he had worked closely with Henry Cromwell in an effort to forge a new religious settlement.
He died in Hackney, London, in 1669 and was buried in St. Mildred's Church, Bread Street, London.
He married Susannah Pepper, daughter of Dennis Pepper, and sister of Captain George Pepper of Ballygart, County Meath. The Peppers were relatives of the Earl of Cork. The marriage was a troubled one as Susannah became a Quaker in 1656, and was arrested for attending a Quaker meeting in Dublin in 1664. This led to an estrangement which was seemingly never made up, as her husband in his last will urged her sternly to consider "how she had fallen", and to "perform her first act" (i.e. of repentance).
They had fours sons:
- William Worth (c.1646-1721), lawyer and judge, who held office as Recorder of Cork and Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland),[1]
- Edward Worth junior, a doctor,
- Michael, who seems to have died young,
- John Worth (1648-1688), Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, who was the father of:
- Edward Worth, the noted politician, physician and book collector.[2]
They also had a daughter:
- Susannah, who married Epinetus Crosse: their descendants included John Wandesford, 1st Earl Wandesford.
He had some reputation as a book collector, and his books probably formed the nucleus of the remarkable collection of his grandson, the third Edward Worth, which still exists , and is housed in Dr Steevens' Hospital.
He left lands and money to found St Stephen's Hospital in Cork, popularly known as the Blue Coat School for poor boys, for which act of benevolence he is now mainly remembered.[3]
References
- Ball, F.Elrington. The Judges in Ireland, 1221-1921. p. 358.
- "The Edward Worth Library". Reading East. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
- Smith, Charles. The Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork ..., Volume 1. p. 384.
- Ware, Sir James (1739). The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, Volume 1. p. 596.